Rosenthal and Morosi list the Diamondbacks, White Sox, Dodgers, Indians, and Pirates as teams with interest in Youkilis. They also note that the Reds are not interested, despite Youk's Cincinnati roots.

Scouts are expected to be on-hand this weekend to watch Youkilis and the Red Sox take on the Marlins. The 33-year-old corner infielder is in the midst of a 1-for-21 slump and has seen his triple slash line plummet to .215/.301/.345. He'll earn more than $7MM over the remainder of this season, and an acquiring team would have the option of picking up a $13MM option or paying a $1MM buyout.

Recently, it was reported that D-backs GM Kevin Towers was "reluctant" to pursue Youkilis.

He has been a sourpuss because he grinds out every AB.. Plays the game with as much/more intensity as anyone in the game and some/many fans and especially the TV broadcast media of other teams dislike him for that?

I wish half the Red Sox roster would play the game with as much intensity as Youk so the arr9gant announcers of a few (not named) teams would have even more to complain about.

Lawrie? How is 35 runs, 18 XBH, 27 RBIs, 14 BB, 9 SB and a line of .288/.335/.412 not good for a second year player? Baseball nowadays no longer is dominated by the veterans. There are many young players that come in right away and produce. These kids get babied too much nowadays.

For what it’s worth, Youkilis has long commented to the media that while he doesn’t care what position he plays, he wants to play a position consistently, which hasn’t been happening. I fully expect that some regular time at 1B would see Youk’s numbers return to what we have come to expect.

The ZIPS rest-of-season projections have Will Middlebrooks with a .253/.291/.420/.711 line in 306 plate appearances and Kevin Youkilis with a .257/.362/.451/.813 line in 279 plate appearances.

Baseball America had never ranked the 23-year-old Middlebrooks among the Top 10 Red Sox prospects until a .285/.328/.506/.834 minor league line in 2011 catapulted Middlebrooks to the top of the Red Sox prospect list. A .328 on-base percentage — in a minor league breakout season — will be hard to translate into an MLB on-base percentage above the Mendoza-equivalent line of .300.

I’ve said it multiple times before, but I’m still not convinced that they wouldn’t be best served by trading Middlebrooks instead. I am convinced that Middlebrooks is going to be a good player, but I doubt that his value will ever be higher than it is right now.

oh no….ownership is sucking people like you in just like they want to do….he is the main problem in the clubhouse….i would like to see a lot of trades( but winning most of the deals) and more prospects coming up who have the will to play like the Lavarnways and Andersons of the world…get rid of Youk and Beckett and most of the problems will be gone…

im just saying, im not saying them in particular…the prospects in general are gonna have more will to play….Lars Anderson a future prospect and if ownership doesn’t make some moves they might have to consider bringing up the Iglesias’s, Lavarnways etc….

Lavarnway is a maybe catcher, and is far from guaranteed to come in and immediately produce even as well as Salty, let alone better.

Anderson is a has been who barely ever was, so I don’t know why you even mention his name.

Who do you propose they replace Beckett with? He’s been one of the better starters on the team this year, and starting pitching is what they need to add; removing a guy like Beckett doesn’t help. And just because the EEI radio jokers wanted to make a big deal out of the whole golf thing doesn’t mean Beckett is actually a problem, don’t listen to their nonsense.

Youkilis is one of the better hitters in the game when he’s healthy, and a <40 game sample this year doesn't change that fact, so trading him while his value is at it's absolute lowest point of his career is a ridiculous idea. Middlebrooks' stats suggest he is due for a pretty major regression, so it's far from certain that he will out-produce Youkilis for the remainder of the season. I'm still not 100% convinced that it wouldn't be a good idea to move Middlbrooks instead of Youkilis.

There are guys on the team who could reasonably be traded and replaced by prospects, but guys who you would be selling extremely low on, and guys who play a position of major need (starting pitchers) are not the guys you should be trading – despite what Massarotti is telling you.

yes, when healthy…Youk is good…3rd base has obviously torn him down…this whole situation is a mess…im just mad that we are horrible….we do need starting pitching…we don’t have to trade beckett for more pitching but who would you trade for it…obviously not prospects….and yes Felger and Mazz has brain washed my mind…I would stick Youk at first base in a heartbeat if we did not have Gonzo….and it is too bad Ortiz is doing good…so Youk can’t be a DH….and sadly third base is wearing him down…

Sure, he should be at 1B at this point in his career, and he would quite likely be more productive playing 1B, but he was on pace for 5+ WAR for the fourth straight season playing at 3B last year, so I don’t believe for a second that his struggles this year all stem from him playing 3B (not to mention the fact that he has played at least as much 1B since coming off the DL as he has 3B, and is still struggling). He’s in a slump, and maybe he’s still not 100% healthy, but he proved last year he can be a valuable player even playing 3B everyday.

Just because he got injured, doesn’t mean he won’t get his game on. I believe if he is traded, the BoSox will go down hill. He is a great batter with great stats. Give him some time to get back to normal. He has been a strong addition to the BoSox. I really hope he doesn’t get traded. He is a strong asset to our team.

The Baltimore Orioles could use him but that will not happen, 1. the Dead soxs are in our division. he my not want to come here. 2. he is in his prime, 3. I like him because he is a winner. 4. everybodys talking about him and knowone mentioned us if we get him we will shock the world because no one exspect us to win the division or a playoff spot. so I say Be Surprised.

The 2011 World Series champions were 8.5 games out last year. On September 1st. People need to stop acting like this is an insurmountable deficit all of a sudden. Heck, the **2004** Red Sox fell to 10.5 games out on August 15 of that year, and they still came within 2 games of New York right near the end. There is a lot of baseball left to play.

Man I wish they would swap him to the orioles if he has to go someplace.. There WAS a time when if either the O’s/Boston was out, or on the ropes..etc.. They would try and help each other, or make deals.. The goal was to ALWAYS knock off the NYY and don’t trade to NY was all, but I doubt that philosophy stands with ownership changes and all now on both sides.

This, so much. When things were going well everyone loved Youkilis’ act; he was intense, and he cared, and he was passionate, etc… Now, because they’re losing and/or he’s struggling, he’s a problem and a clubhouse cancer, and he needs to go because his attitude is making them lose.

We’re 8 games out and behind three very good teams and a team that is due for massive regression. I think it’s prudent to make the best trade for the Red Sox moving forward. The way Youkilis has played this season, he wouldn’t help them much anyway.

that’s what I’ve always argued for…but I’m becoming less and less convinced now. Youk is supposedly healthy and still playing poorly. Same with the beginning of the season. Perhaps he is not 100%, but I do believe he is truly declining.

If you told me that the norm for Youkilis at this point was about the pace he put up last year, I would probably buy it, but if you were to try to tell me that what he’s doing now is the “real” Youkilis at this point of his career I might just laugh in your face.

By no means is he useless, especially if he moves back to 1B. That may help him stay healthy.

But for the Sox, it is time to trade him. Middlebrooks has shown enough, and the WMB/Youk/AGon rotation is not viable. Last thing I wanna see is AGon getting hurt in RF. Some people argue that down the road, Middlebrooks may struggle and we’ll be wishing we had Youk back. While that may be, how can you be sure that Youk will not also be struggling? Or even on the DL? Given Youk’s recent history, DL or not being 100% would not be a surprise at any given time.

It’s no guarantee that Youkilis will be more valuable than Middlebrooks, or vise versa, but you don’t trade Youkilis for spare parts just to play a guy who has shown that he really wouldn’t be hurt by a little more time in AAA. And like your point about Youkilis getting hurt, who’s to say that Middlebrooks or Gonzalez can’t get hurt? If you trade Youkilis and one of those two gets hurt you’re stuck with Nick Punto starting at a corner infield spot. That sounds like fun, right? If you stick Middlebrooks back in AAA and Youkilis (or Gonzalez) were to get hurt you have him available to come up and play, and you wouldn’t have to watch Punto out there every day.

Yes, my preferred solution was always to do that, Middlebrooks back in AAA and hold on to Youk. But Sox front office clearly doesn’t seem to be heading that direction. The current situation with AGon in RF is a mess. If they’re set on playing Middlebrooks and letting Youk go, do it sooner rather than later so that Middlebrooks and AGon can have some stability.

If they’re looking for Youk to build his value before they trade him, then send Middlebrooks to AAA temporarily and let Youk play full-time without the messy rotation going on.

They may not be dead-set on trading Youkilis; they could be willing to trade him and trying to gauge what the interest is before they have to make a move with sending Middlebrooks down.

As you point out, they can send Middlebrooks down to AAA regardless of what they intend to do with Youkilis (unless they trade him in the next day or so); they can see if someone is willing to give them what it would take to send Youkilis away and bring Middlebrooks up if they find someone, and if they don’t they can leave Middlebrooks in AAA to work on his plate discipline.

” Polanco’s value really only comes in his batting average and defense”

You know.. A guy the LAD gave up on and became somewhat appreciated finally in Boston fits that “bill” also.. Goes by the name of Billy Mueller.. He just played terrific defense and slapped the ball all over the place.. Kept this young kid at Pawtucket also a wee bit longer (2 seasons) by the name of Youkiliis..

Yes, it makes a lot of sense to trade another big part of our Farm System, especially when we messed it up in the Gonzalez deal….Also, I don’t think bringing in a kid with Social Anxiety Disorder will help the clubhouse

what is the love fest with Garza. just because he use to pitch good against the red sox doesnt mean he is going to pitch good for the red sox. the guy has been okay and nothing special this season. i wish more sox fans can egt off the garza badwagon.

Like i said, the red sox would pay his salary and give them Lavarnway also since we have ZERO use for him this year or next. And even 2 years from now he is a backup C and DH. He is most likely top prospect to get traded. Ill put money on that.

Its to bad because i really like Youkilis but in the end im all for whats best for the RED SOX. If Ben does trade him, hopefully it will be to a NL team like cause idont want to see youk bat against the red sox but if it mean trading him to a al team gets you a better return then just do it.

This should have been done right after last season ended…now owners are letting him start even though he doesn’t deserve to, just to try to build trade value…i say send him to AAA and let him build trade value there then package him with Beckett and get the cancer out of Boston…and to reply to above comments..did someone really say package him with Lavernway? wow you must be a pink hat because Lavernway IS our future catcher OR DH

Seriously? You can’t just “send” Youk to AAA. Their options are to keep him, trade him, waive him, or designate him for assignment. The latter would require him to clear waivers before he could be assigned to AAA. Otherwise, can’t be assigned to AAA without giving veteran’s consent. Oh, and it’s Lavarnway, not Lavernway. Perhaps you’re the pink hat.

He still has the option, it’s just that he would have to clear revocable waivers first (which is considered a formality in this situation – guys never get claimed under those circumstances and even if they do the claim can be revoked) and because he has the option year left he doesn’t have to okay being sent to the minors (no veteran’s consent needed).

He just has to go there’s no other way around it. He’s been a good soldier for a while but for whatever reason, I think his struggles and the off the field issues are taking their toll on him too much.

I know it’s popular thought here to say that locker room chemistry is overrated, but right now the Sox have an unhappy player on their hands. And unhappy and unproductive is the worst combination you can have. I also don’t think Gonzo signed on to be their right fielder, so they just need to move on and get everyone back to their right positions. There’s still a bit of a chance that they can get hot and salvage the season.

Is it me, or did the Sox really start sliding again after Youk returned and they started this ridiculous musical chairs with WMB, Gonzo, and Youk?
I think Youk has been great all these years. I also think the FO shoulve done this over the winter and just trusted WMB to do the job. But it is what it is and I hope they can move Youk somewhere so this team can get back to normal…
If they eat some $$ and maybe throw in an a prospect (or not) they can get back another prospect in return. I wouldnt give away a future piece if theyre not getting anything decent back in return…
Just get everyone back to where they should be playing, and WMB needs to play everyday…

do you know who was mentoring will middlebrooks last year and in spring training, openly talking about how great the kid was and how he was the future for the team? rhymes with shoukilis

there’s no grudge. the guy has always been furious with himself when he and/or the team has not played well. he flips out after a strikeout when he’s gone 4-for-5 for the night. that’s the kind of player he is

he’s slumping this year, the team is losing, and boston has never been a more melodramatic place

Red Sox fans are being set up for a massive disappointment when they see the return for Youkilis after this type of revelation. Think less “prospect” and more “player to be named later + cash”. Sounds like they just want him vanished, and they might get a bucket of balls back now.

I don’t know if he’s worth Parra or not (I guess it depends on whether you buy into his one good offensive year, and think he is a starter, or if you think his three poor offensive years are more “real” and view him as a 4th outfielder), but that wasn’t really the point. The point was that he doesn’t really make sense for the Diamondbacks regardless of the cost, so you can’t really draw conclusions from them not wanting to give up Parra for him; to a team where Youkilis would be a good fit he might be worth a guy like Parra.

With the way WMB has been playing lately and his questionable K/BB rates, I think it would be prudent to send him down and allow him to see time everyday. Play Youkilis at third consistently (and allow Gonzalez to move his GG caliber defense back to his natural position) and hope that he gets hot. At that point you can make the decision to either sell high or continue to have one of the best hitting 1B in the league in your lineup.

This Gonzalez/Middlebrooks/Youkilis rotation has to stop. End the madness.

With Ross and hopefully Crawford coming off the DL soon, the only other option to that is to trade Youk for next to nothing. Any Sox fan who has paid any attention the last few years knows how valuable a healthy Youkilis is.

With 1700 outfielders on the DL I don’t think playing Gonzalez in RF and keeping Middlebrooks around was the worst decision, but with guys coming back it’s making less sense, so they are forced to do something. I’m with you though that that something should be sending Middlebrooks back to AAA to work on some stuff that obviously still needs work (in reality they are things that could be worked on at the major league level, but when the choice is either give Youkilis away for nothing, or send him to AAA to work on them, it really shouldn’t be a difficult decision).

I don’t think it was a bad idea at all, in fact, I applaud management for thinking outside the box with Gonzalez in right. At this point though, you’ve got one of Youkilis/Gonzalez sitting every other day…it makes sense that the two of them are struggling without consistent playing time.

I agree with the Middlebrooks assessment as well. His current approach has worked at every level so far and I think the Travis Fryman comparison offered by SoxProspects is spot on. His ceiling, if he could fine tune his approach at the plate even a little, is probably higher than that. A 3-4 WAR 3b is pretty valuable.

I just really don’t want to see Youkilis given away for nothing, especially considering how underrated (his OPS. during his peak seasons was just under that Pujols/Votto/Cabrera type production) he has been the last few years. At his age he’s probably not a 6 WAR player anymore but I refuse to believe that we’re seeing the real Kevin Youkilis right now.

I think Youk would be a great fit in Pittsburgh. He fills our need for a right hand hitting power bat at first base, and we have enough major league ready pitching at Triple-A to give the Red Sox what they need as long as they are willing to pay the majority of the contract. Jeff Locke or Justin Wilson would be a good deal for both clubs. Even if the Pirates needed to add mid tier prospect to get the deal done, so be it. Obviously Youk wont warrant any of our top prospects, so it seems like a win/win for us, and no matter which Triple-A starter Boston winds up with, they will not be dissapointed. The Indianapolis staff is dominating their league this year.

I’m going to dream for a minute. WMB, as much as I like the guy, gets sent back down to work on his plate discipline. Youk puts a smile on his face once he gets his regular time back and starts to approach his norms. A-Gon back comfortably at first also decides to hit like he used to and the offense starts clicking. Ross and Ellsbury come back healthy and pick up where they left off (Ellsbury last year). Crawford gets off the DL and shows us why 7/$142 million isn’t THAT bad of an offer. Andrew Bailey comes back lights out, and Aceves gets his ERA down in the long relief role, and Bard comes back up as a shutdown 8th inning guy.

I don’t want to wake back up, but there isn’t a 0% chance this happens right?

Sox fans this guys value is down the tubes. Injury prone and aging, take if from a tigers fan who just saw brandon inge finally go. Get what you can and move on, and if you are unlucky he will put up ted williams numbers against you in a series.

Brandon Inge never even dreamed of putting up numbers like Youkilis has, and outside of two years Inge was always league average or worse, so it’s not like him stinking was something new. It is new with Youkilis (~40 games new), so there’s a lot more skepticism about Youkilis suddenly falling off the map and becoming a nobody.

Well I brought it up from a fan favorite point of view and their performance fell off. Youk was better but that was not the point, he is falling off the face of the earth like inge did. Inge went from below average to terrible, Youk is going from good to below average and is/was a fan favorite. Youk played horrible last year and has never played more than 145 games in his career, and played 100 2 years ago, 120 last year, and has had injury problems and is aging. Not rocket science.

Incorrect. Youk was having another outstanding season until early part of August when he sustained a hernia.. went on the DL for a very short time, came back and delayed surgery until the season was over to go under the knife.. A sports hernia surgery also, the same one that shelves many players for half a season, like it did Mike Cameron 2 seasons ago..

His numbers last year were not good, and he is injury prone. Injuries were a contributing factor but the truth is he is old and injuries will hamper his perfomance. But sure for the last 2 years he is batting what .235?

Youkilis was so bad last year that he put up ~4 WAR in just 120 games. He was so bad that his .366 wOBA was better than A-Rod, Longoria, Teixeira, McCutchen, Swisher, Zobrist, Ryan Howard… And his wOBA was within 5 points of guys like Hamilton, Kinsler, and V-Mart.

And was injured…injury problems mean nothing? I think you were the guy that kept telling me the red sox would be better this year despite being a 90 win team last year and getting worse. How is that working out?

I probably did tell you that they would be better than last year, and it was the right call. If you say that you could have predicted that they would go through 14 different outfielders this year, that Gonzalez and Pedroia would both be below league average hitters, that Buchholz would have a 9.00+ ERA into mid-May, that Lester would be pitching better than last year (FIP is 20 points lower) but have an ERA more than a full run higher, that they would be forced to play Gonzalez in RF 17 time (so far), and that Franklin Morales would be forced into a starters role you’re a liar.

I did think they would put up better numbers offensively and was never impressed with their OF aside from ells. Their staff has imploded, and injury prone bailey well got injured. Predictable. SAme with youkilis, the writing is on the wall, it is just a matter of whether or not you choose to accept it. He is done with the sox.

Bailey and Youkilis getting injured may both have been predictable situations, but they had good backup plans for both of those things that should have meant very little to no drop off in production when it happened. It’s all of the other things that have happened that have caused them to struggle this year, and those are the things that were unpredictable.

If the only things that had gone wrong were the predictable ones (Youk and Bailey going down) they would be several games better in the standings. Even if it only brought them up to the 37-29 that the Rays are at they would be on pace for 90 Wins (and having Ellsbury all year, Lester and Buchholz pitching the way you would expect them to, and Gonzalez and Pedroia hitting the way we know they can would likely have made more than a 4 game difference, which would put them on pace for more than 90 wins). As it is their Pythagorean win expectancy has them at 91 wins even with all of those unexpected issues.

Oh they would have been fine without youk? but he is a 200000 win player!!!!!

Anyone who thought clay would go through perfect this year was deluding themselves. Back injuries are complicated. Bard exploding, becket getting injured and having chemistry issues, yep. Like I said before the season, teh whole rotation other than lester was a question mark. Now the gonzo playing right came outa nowhere, but that is by far the dumbest thing..

A healthy Youkilis is easily a better player than Middlebrooks, but Middlebrooks is a good enough player that yes, they would have been fine without Youkilis. Losing Youkilis for a while, and even playing a struggling Youkilis is not the reason they are in last place.

Basically on par though with what the Astros got for Lance Berkman when they dealt him to the Yanks (setup guy/middle reliever and utility player). Like Youk, Berkman was having a down year and had a big option left (which the Yanks declined). Youk really has no value and think the Sox are in for a rude awakening if they think they’ll get a good spec simply by eating money.

With almost 10M left on his contract this year and an obligation of 1M for next year why would anyone want him at that price based on declining numbers over a three year period? This is not the player of a few years ago who could get you just about anything as he was a truly MVP class performer.

Seems Youk has some of the same attributes of Nomar and Manny. Time for him to move on and just maybe resuscitate his career elsewhere.

The Red Sox will get next to nothing if they trade Youkilis right now. This includes relief from Youkilis’ $7M+ salary obligation for the remainder of the 2012 season.

There are other options to consider:1) put him on the 60-day DL to open up a roster slot2) Ask him to return to Pawtucket so that he can play every day to attempt regain his hitting prowess.3) limit his role to that of a late inning defensive replacement at 1st and 3rd4) let him continue to play in the hopes that he regains his hitting ability5) release him

Unless Youk miraculously regains his ability to hit the Red Sox will
not resign him in 2013 for $13M so, regardless of what happens, the Sox front office will have $12M to reallocate next year.

This may seem stupid at first, but I think the Cubs should take a chance on him. Send Garza (once he gets off the DL) for a good chunk of prospects from the Red Sox farm system plus Youkilis to solely balance out the money. Theo knows the Red Sox prospects as well as anybody, so he could possibly know the best ones to shoot for. Plus, if Youkilis were to somehow miraculously rebound next season at 3b, the Cubs could boast a solid heart of the order in Rizzo-Youk-LaHair (in RF). For a team as hopeless as the Cubs right now, it’s worth a shot.

Dunno about that. Uribe at least can play defense even if his offensive ceiling is lower. Youkilis still has to prove that he’s capable of making a comeback. Trading these two would be a one-way trip into the unknown for the Dodgers. In fact at this point I don’t really see the Dodgers making any big moves unless Carlos Lee becomes available.

yes, Indeed, but there are some points to consider. Both players had been injured several times in the last year and a half. Both are underachieving, but Youk was one of the premier hitters in baseball a couple of years back, Uribe had been a journeyman. We are stuck with one more year of 7m to Uribe and we can buy out Youk’s 13m for 1m in the worst case scenario. And finally we cut ties with Withrow who had been a major disappointment and concentrate in our other pitching prospects.

At this point Uribe is producing at right around his career averages so I think he’s more of a known quantity. Youkilis is a good gamble provided the team has a Plan B if he doesn’t make a comeback. Without Uribe, the Dodgers’ Plan B is playing Kennedy and Hairston at third.

Were hurting Middlebrooks by having him at Major League level and having him not play… If we’re going to continue with Youk playing..ugggggh then Middlebrooks needs to be sent down so he can have some at bats

We live with one foot in the Pacific Ocean as a Loyal Red Sox fan reading about the fall of the beloved BoSox. What happened to an all star team? New General Manager, new field manager, disappointed players alll stars sitting on the bench. We just dropped Manny. At least I lived long enough to see the Sox win the World Series.

Let’s see. The Red Sox, who know Youklis better than anyone and have more knowledge about his body than anyone, are aggressively shopping him now, while he’s got a 650-ish OPS and he’s been injured more often than on the field, so his trade value is incredibly low. I wonder what that means their (most informed) opinion is of his injuries and his future contributions.

This is an IQ test for management and ownership of other teams. Anyone who trades anything of value for Youklis at this point fails.